House Chairs Ask HHS About Potential Privacy Violations by Navigators

Reps. Charles Boustany (R-La.) and Kevin Brady (R-Texas) have sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking a series of questions about potential privacy violations by health insurance exchange navigators and non-navigator assisters...

May 22, 2013

Reps. Charles Boustany (R-La.) and Kevin Brady (R-Texas) have sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking a series of questions about potential privacy violations by health insurance exchange navigators and non-navigator assisters.

Boustany, chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Brady, chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, want to know — among other things — what information navigators and non-navigator assisters will have access to. Specifically, Sebelius is asked if they will have access to Social Security numbers or Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers; dates of birth; or income information of the individuals they assist. The letter also asks whether anything in a rule proposed by HHS would prohibit navigators and non-navigator assisters from being convicted felons, or individuals convicted of identity fraud. The letter requests responses from HHS no later than May 21, 2013.